Touch
by knittingknots
Summary: Post Manga. Kaede has sent Kagome off to practice a technique that she needs to master to be a good healer. What happens when she tries to get InuYasha to help her?


_I do not own InuYasha or any of the characters created by Rumiko Takahashi_

**Touch**

"So let me get this right," InuYasha said. " Kaede told you as part of your training you have to practice touching?"

It was a warm and sticky evening. InuYasha had banked the fire for the night, and a single lamp was lit, casting deep shadows in the room. Kagome, sitting in front of InuYasha, was dressed in her inner kosode only because of the heat, and InuYasha had stripped down to nothing but his hakama.

"That's right. Touch is one of the ways we tell why someone's sick. Kaede said it's also the one we're usually worst at using well. She told me to put a blindfold on and practice until I learn to use my sense of touch as well as I do my eyes."

InuYasha took her hand by the wrist and held it up. His face, molded by the shadows, was hard for Kagome to read, but she caught the small smirk on his lips as he gently ran a finger lightly along the outside of her first finger. It tingled, feeling sensual where he brushed it across her skin. "Touch, eh?" he said, then rounded the tip of her finger, down to the cleft where the finger joined the hand. She shivered a little. He then interlaced his much larger, claw-tipped fingers with hers, letting her hand drop.

"So you want me to tie your scarf around your eyes and let you practice touching . . . me?" he said, squeezing her hand lightly. She nodded, and with a little shrug, he took the cloth she held up and scooted behind her to fasten the cloth around her, gently moving her hair to keep it from getting pinned to the knot or getting caught in her eyes.

"Now what?" he asked, leaning forward, breathing in her ear.

Her shoulder jerked up a little at the sensation. "That tickles!" she said. "Come sit in front of me."

He shifted back around, sitting cross-legged in front of her. Her hand reached gingerly out, lightly touched him near the knee. "Give me your hand," she asked. InuYasha lay his right hand gently on hers.

Kagome softly took her left hand and cupped his hand between the two. She raised his hand between her two. "Kaede said I should start with your hand, and see if I can see what it tells me," she said as she smoothed her hands along both sides of his. Turning his hand palm up, she rested his hand over her left and began tracing along the lines of his palm.

"You're not gonna try any of the Miroku palmistry stuff, are you?" InuYasha said, watching how her fingers brushed along the callouses just below his fingers, danced along the long line circling his thumb.

She giggled, a light sweet sound. "I don't think so," she said, running her finger up the length of his first finger, carefully up the length of its claw tip, then back down to the palm. "Your hands are so much larger than mine," she said.

"No, your hands are so much smaller than mine, fine and delicate." He dropped his voice into a mutter. " Maybe too fine for a hand like mine to hold."

"Don't say that." Kagome frowned at her husband. "Yours are strong," she said. "I can feel their strength. They make me feel safe and protected. I feel the callouses from your sword and the claws on your fingertips, and how the skin over your knuckles is thick from use. These are the hands of someone who will never give in. Your hands make my hands safe."

She leaned forward, letting her hands move up his arms, past his elbows. "I can feel the strength in your arms, how the muscles move under the skin. How many times have you lifted me or someone else out of trouble?" she wondered.

His arms clasped around Kagome and pulled her into his lap. Her hands continued up to his jaw, sweeping across his cheekbones, exploring his forehead, then down his nose and across his lips. His hands clasped her hand, and offered her fingers a small kiss.

"These are the hands that brought me back to life," he said, kissing them once again.

"InuYasha," Kagome said.

A light glinted in his eyes, and if she could have seen it, she would have known something was up. Suddenly, he turned her around in his lap, so her back was against his chest. "You know, Kagome, you can feel with more than just your hands." He nibbled at her ear lobe, and her shoulders came up as she laughed.

Still holding her around her middle with one arm, he pushed her kosode hem up with the other. "I bet your thigh can feel just fine." He grazed the bare skin ever so lightly with his claws. He could feel the goose bumps rise on her skin, and smell the first touches of excitement on her scent.

"Stop that, InuYasha!" she said, wiggling in his hold.

"Uh-uh. I'm supposed to help you learn more about touch. Kaede said so."

"Not this way!" she said leaning forward, but unable to budge his hold on her. Something warm and wet snaked over her neck, followed by gentle light kisses.

"I bet your neck feels just fine as well," he said, breathing over the skin he had just tasted, then running his tongue over the outer edge of her ear. A soft gasp left her lips. "Ear, too. Wonder what else you have that can feel just as well?"

Kagome relaxed into his arms when she felt him fumble for the knot of her obi. "Do I get to take off the blindfold?"

"Nope," he said, as he pulled the obi loose from her waist.

"You know, I'll get you later for this," she said as she stretched out a hand and clasped his thigh.

"That's later," he said. He ran his fingers lightly over her shoulder as he nudged the kosode off of the top of her shoulder. "Now I've got you, and I want you to feel."

Feeling the warm wetness of his tongue on the top of her shoulder, she sighed, giving into the feeling. Somehow, she suspected this was not what Kaede had in mind, but as her hanyou intensified his demonstration of touch, she really didn't care.

* * *

Note: In traditional Japanese medicine, there are four things that the medical practitioner uses to diagnose with: sight, hearing, questioning and touch.


End file.
